Burgomaster
Encyclopedia
Burgomaster is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages
for the chief magistrate
or chairman of the executive council of a sub-national level of administration. All contemporary titles are commonly translated into English as Town Mayor.
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
for the chief magistrate
Chief Magistrate
Chief Magistrate is a generic designation for a public official whose office—individual or collegial—is the highest in his or her class, in either of the fundamental meanings of Magistrate : as a major political and administrative office , and/or as a judge Chief Magistrate is a generic designation...
or chairman of the executive council of a sub-national level of administration. All contemporary titles are commonly translated into English as Town Mayor.
Municipal government
- Bürgermeister, in German: in Germany, Austria, and formerly in SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. In Switzerland, the title was abolished mid-19th century; various current titles for roughly equivalent offices include GemeindepräsidentGemeindeGemeinde is a German word for borough, commune, community, township, municipality, or in religious contexts, a parish or congregation ....
, Stadtpräsident, Gemeindeammann, and Stadtammann.- Oberbürgermeister ('Supreme Burgomaster') is the most common version for a mayor in a big city. The Ober- (lit. upper) prefix is used in many ranking systems for the next level up including military designations. The mayors of cities, which simultaneously comprise one of Germany's 112 urban districts usually bear this title. Urban districts are comparable to independent citiesIndependent cityAn independent city is a city that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity. These type of cities should not be confused with city-states , which are fully sovereign cities that are not part of any other sovereign state.-Historical precursors:In the Holy Roman Empire,...
in the English-speaking world. However, also the mayors of some cities, which do not comprise an urban district, but often used to comprise one until the territorial reforms in the 1970s, bear the title Oberbürgermeister.
- Oberbürgermeister ('Supreme Burgomaster') is the most common version for a mayor in a big city. The Ober- (lit. upper) prefix is used in many ranking systems for the next level up including military designations. The mayors of cities, which simultaneously comprise one of Germany's 112 urban districts usually bear this title. Urban districts are comparable to independent cities
- Borgmester (DanishDanish languageDanish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
) - Borgarstjóri (FaroeseFaroese languageFaroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...
) - Burgomaestre (Spanish)
- Borgomastro o Sindaco-Borgomastro (Italian): in few communes of LombardyLombardyLombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
- Burgemeester in DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
: BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
a party-political post, though formally nominated by the regional government and answerable to it, the federal state and even the province. Mayor and president of the municipal council. In The Netherlands nominated by the municipal council but appointed by the crown. In theory above the parties, in practice a high profile party-political post. - Bourgmestre (French) in Belgium, LuxembourgLuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
and the Democratic Republic of the CongoAdministrative divisions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo-Territorial Organisation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo:Reference : The administrative hierarchy of Political subdivisions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is as follows* Province ** Mairies *** Cities... - Burmistras (LithuanianLithuanian languageLithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
), derived from German. - Buergermeeschter (LuxembourgishLuxembourgish languageLuxembourgish is a High German language spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 320,000 people worldwide speak Luxembourgish.-Language family:...
) - Polgármester (HungarianHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
), derived from German. - Posadnik (Old Church Slavic) Russian local title (Novgorod)
- Burmistrz (PolishPolish languagePolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
), a mayoral title, derived from German. The German form Oberbürgermeister ('Supreme Burgomaster') is often translated as Nadburmistrz. The German-derived terminology reflects the involvement of German settlers in the early history of many Polish towns. - Borgmästare, kommunalborgmästare (SwedishSwedish languageSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
); the title is not used in Sweden in present times, the closest equivalent being kommunalråd (often translated to English as Municipal commissionerMunicipal CommissionerMunicipal Commissioner is an office and political title in the municipalities of Sweden for councillors with executive responsibilities. The Commissioners are the only full-time employed office-holders outside the municipal civil service...
) or borgarråd (only in Stockholm CityStockholm MunicipalityStockholm Municipality or the City of Stockholm is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It is the largest of the 290 municipalities of the country in terms of population, but one of the smaller in terms of area, making it the most densely populated...
). - Boargemaster (West FrisianWest Frisian languageWest Frisian is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside the Netherlands, to distinguish it from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian and North Frisian,...
) - Pormestari (FinnishFinnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
)
City state government
- In history (sometimes until the beginning of the 19th c.) in many Free Imperial Cities (such as BremenBremenThe City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, Hamburg, LübeckLübeckThe Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
etc.) the function of burgomaster was usually held simultaneously by three persons, serving as an executive college. One of the three being burgomaster in chief for a year (called in some cases in ; in presiding burgomaster), the second being the prior burgomaster in chief, the third being the upcoming one. Präsidierender Bürgermeister is now an obsolete formulation sometimes found in historic texts. - In an important city, especially in a city state (Stadtstaat), where one of the Bürgermeister has a rank equivalent to that of a minister-presidentMinister-PresidentA minister-president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments, in which a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government prevails, who presides over the council of ministers...
(Governor (US)), there can be several posts called Bürgermeister in the city's executive college, justifying the use of a compound title for the actual highest Magistrate (also rendered as Lord MayorLord MayorThe Lord Mayor is the title of the Mayor of a major city, with special recognition.-Commonwealth of Nations:* In Australia it is a political position. Australian cities with Lord Mayors: Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta, Perth, Sydney, and Wollongong...
), such as:- Regierender Bürgermeister (literally 'Governing Burgomaster', commonly translated as Governing MayorGoverning Mayor of BerlinThe Governing Mayor of Berlin is the head of government in the city-state of Berlin, one of the States of Germany. It is the equivalent of the Ministers-President of the other German states except the two other city-states of Hamburg and Bremen, where the heads of government are called "First...
) in West BerlinWest BerlinWest Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
and reunited Berlin, while in Berlin the term Bürgermeister without attribute – English Mayor – refers to his deputies, and while the heads of the 12 boroughBoroughA borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....
s of Berlin are called Bezirksbürgermeister, English Borough Mayor. - Erster Bürgermeister (literally First Burgomaster) in HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
- Bürgermeister und Präsident des Senats ('Burgomaster and President of the SenateSenate of BremenThe Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the government of the city-state of Bremen . The senate has existed since mediæval times. The senate is headed by a President, who also holds the title of Mayor. The President's deputy also holds the title Mayor...
') in BremenBremen (state)The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 states. A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...
- Regierender Bürgermeister (literally 'Governing Burgomaster', commonly translated as Governing Mayor
Compound title at supra-municipal level
- Amtsbürgermeister (German; roughly translated: 'District Burgomaster') can be used for the Chief Magistrate of a Swiss constitutive Canton, as in AargauAargauAargau is one of the more northerly cantons of Switzerland. It comprises the lower course of the river Aare, which is why the canton is called Aar-gau .-History:...
1815–1831 (next styled Landamman)